Afghan Biographies

Omari, Ibrahim Haji

Name

Omari, Ibrahim Haji

Ethnic backgr.

Pashtun

Date of birth

Function/Grade

younger brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani

History and Biodata

3. Biodata:

Haji Ibrahim Omari aka ‘Haqqani’ is a younger brother of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the head of the so-called Haqqani network. He represented the family in the Murree talks. He fought the Soviets as a mujahedin commander in the late 1980s; during the Emirate era, in the 1990s, he was a mid-level military commander. After the battle of Shahikot (‘Operation Anaconda’) in 2002, according to different versions, Haji Ibrahim either ‘split’ from Jalaluddin and surrendered to the post-Taleban interim government of Hamed Karzai or he was sent by Jalaluddin to negotiate with Kabul and/or the US forces.

In recent years, Ibrahim has been seen in Islamabad living as a free (business) man, not chased for any links to the Haqqani network. He has no formal portfolio in the Haqqani ‘network’ but continues to acts as an informal messenger for its leaders. According to an acquaintance, Ibrahim visited Afghanistan several times. Like most of the family, Haji Ibrahim has reportedly close relations to Pakistan’s intelligence services.

The Pakistani government could have brought core military members of the Haqqani network instead of Haji Ibrahim to the meeting with no great difficulty. However, it chose Ibrahim probably out of caution, not wanting to expose the ISI’s tight-knit relations with the Haqqanis. Moreover, several of the Haqqanis have US bounties of millions of dollars on their heads, so bringing one of the military leaders (such as Serajuddin, Yahya or Qari Zaker – he is different from Qayum Zaker, the influential South Afghanistan-based Taleban commander) would have been impossible given that Americans were at the same table.